I'm freakin' lovin' this show. Best thing on TV right now, by a long shot.

Didn't see the reveal coming this episode, and enjoyed having to pick my jaw up off the ground. Looking forward to seeing the creature, or some other sort of forward progress in November. There's no way they won't have some sort of major reveal during Sweeps. (While presenting a whole slew of questions, I'm sure.)

Also, am I the only one that thought the Office Space reference was stupid? Pulled me right out of the show and the "reality" of the world they're presenting us. Was able to get back in, but immediately thought the joke wasn't worth it.

I know you have all been dying to hear my theory on what the heck is going on, so here it is...

Imagine if you will, that a TV show producer once saw an episode of Star Trek and thought it would make a good centerpiece for his show about airplane crash survivors.

The french woman said "It" killed them all, "It" doesn't have to be a creature. "It" could be some sort of machine that makes people's imaginations come to life.

A guy who spent 4 years in a wheelchair wakes up and can now walk. He tells the kid about his miracle, and the kid then summons up a polar bear accidently, and later on makes it stop raining so his dad will go looking for his lost dog.

The Iraqi guy gets something he thought was lost, Rose is sure her husband isn't dead (maybe she got a visit from him, and that is why she is unwilling to move from that spot), Jack keeps seeing somebody in a suit (maybe his dad? It started happening after he thought about his father while talking with Rose).

The only thing that has happened that pokes a big hole in my theory is that Jack surely wanted the US Marshal to live, and he didn't make a miraculous recovery. Well, aside from whatever holes you folks poke in my theory that I haven't thought of.

You know what would be even cooler? If they did come across a machine like that, then they realize that it's not on and that all the craziness of the island really is going to hose them all because strange stuff is afoot at the Circle K.

Also, am I the only one that thought the Office Space reference was stupid? Pulled me right out of the show and the "reality" of the world they're presenting us. Was able to get back in, but immediately thought the joke wasn't worth it.

I don't know about where you work, but people now go out of their way to make things fit the "TPS" acronym because of Office Space For example, got a database to worry about? TPS = Transactions Per Second. Gotta tell someone about it? It's a TPS Report!

I hear it's a 13 ep run, so we won't have to wait for very long to start to find out things.I'm kinda enjoying the whole seeing everything leading up to this moment while things keep happening in the present.

As far as Locke goes, it's really neat how every episode I keep changing my mind on who he is. Is he the man who wasn't even on the plane, is he Frank Watts from the Millenium Group, is he a force of good or evil, or is he... not any of those things?I'm loving Terry in the role. And I can't wait to see what's going to happen with Locke and what meeting the beast in the jungle has done for him. He's the only one who's seen it so far... well and lived.

It is entirely possible that Locke is in such denial about his paralysis that he refuses to make himself more comfortable in his chair. Spending the absolute minimum effort to make his chair comfortable could have been his way of convincing himself that his situation was only temporary. The more he grows comfortable in his surroundings, the more he is defined by them. But who's to say that's his regular chair? We don't see him in the chair at home, just in the flashback to Australia. Perhaps his regular chair (tricked out with snazzy pinstriping and XM satellite radio) was too bulky or expensive to ship and so he made do with a cheapie just for the trip. I think it's safe to say that his high opinion of his abilities despite the chair would not be diminished by using a stripped down travelling model.

As far as the atrophied musclulature goes, I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of those little things that gets ignored because it gets in the way of telling a good story...much like the feasability of 48 passengers in a tin can surviving a fall of seven miles with in many cases minor injuries.

On the other hand, I fully expect that both questions will be answered by midseason (I believe that the first 13 episodes are supposed to resolve the crash storyline in case the show goes into the tank, while future storylines will be built which center more around the communities that develop as the long-term nature of their stay sets in).

Sweet episode - I don't know where it's going - the metaphor is SO loose and stupid - it's hard to tell sometimes (and so retarded it's easy at others) in the foreshadowing. That part, IMO is weak.

As for the ep - I really am digging the show more out of curiosity.They have to do something sweet.Like Carnivale - the payoff was WAAAY worth the wait. They told you what was coming - they just waited awhile to get to it (great show btw if you're into heavy 'mistraction' foreshadowing and 'distraction' story lines).

But anyhow - I think they hint at that big mofo thing being a big ass 'mother' boar. It sounds unlikely due to the 'predatorish' scene with the pilot - but I don't see anything other than that.

There's defintly some wacked out stuff...

The show probably is purgatory. That's my best guess. I don't want to give network writers TOO much credit.Afterall - notice how every character has made an attempt at bettering themselves or attempting to do something way beyond the call of duty other than the 'put it in my butt' annoying blond whore?

It seems like everyone has something to overcome - sometimes MULTIPLE things. And some of those things are MASSIVE in the mind of a most humans.

It seems logical to me - but how they are all bound together - in purgatory - makes no sense otherwise - as far as connections go... So either the writers want a large demographic of ppl OR my initial thought is way off.

It's probably the latter, but still - the message has been the same all along - and it's dealt with major heroism or major weakness (i.e. the heroin guy or the 'looter' guy). I really am digging the guessing part - cuz I just am not getting it, not to mention - it's my first 'network' show since I was in grade school that I've watched.

A guy who spent 4 years in a wheelchair wakes up and can now walk. He tells the kid about his miracle

Hmm, I didn't make that connection but now that you mention it that would be a good answer to the question of what his 'secret' was.

On a side note, I figure the Giant Creature(tm) killed the pig/s and Locke, after having been spared by the GC, dragged the best one back to camp. I don't think he actually killed the pig himself. So maybe Locke now has an arrangement of sorts with the GC, and the GC will help him in making sure that no one gets off the island. Maybe the pig was an offering to Locke, and Locke will soon have to sacrifice someone to the GC in return.

I read the "raise pigs" thing twice. Am I the only one that thinks that NOT thinking of raising pigs is not a crazy idea? Who the hell is gonna think, "Hmm. Perhaps we should raise some pigs on this beach to keep us alive"?

I like this show, but there are so many moments of, "c'mon now", that it makes me wacky with anger.

If I was stuck with my pre-teen son and had to go hunt boar, the last person I'd choose to watch him would be someone who I COULDN'T COMMUNICATE with. I wouldn't care if she gave me a free show or not. I'd grab Hurley or Dr. Charlie to watch him.

I like this show, but there are so many moments of, "c'mon now", that it makes me wacky with anger.

If I was stuck with my pre-teen son and had to go hunt boar, the last person I'd choose to watch him would be someone who I COULDN'T COMMUNICATE with. I wouldn't care if she gave me a free show or not. I'd grab Hurley or Dr. Charlie to watch him.

You know what I mean??

Yeah, I thought of that too, but you can only list so many complaints before people start getting mad at you for bashing their show, hehe.

As to the pig thing, I wouldn't be worried about raising them either, they are wild on the island so I'd figure there's enough to go around for everyone. I mean, ONE piglet is 150 lbs of meat, that's plenty for starters right?

What I WOULD be thinking is "Gee, maybe that Polar bear meat would be good bait for a piggy trap of some kind, here on the beach, so we don't need to go trampling through the jungle where HUMONGOUS FRICKIN' CREATURES LIVE!"

I like this show, but there are so many moments of, "c'mon now", that it makes me wacky with anger.

If I was stuck with my pre-teen son and had to go hunt boar, the last person I'd choose to watch him would be someone who I COULDN'T COMMUNICATE with. I wouldn't care if she gave me a free show or not. I'd grab Hurley or Dr. Charlie to watch him.

You know what I mean??

Yeah, I thought of that too, but you can only list so many complaints before people start getting mad at you for bashing their show, hehe.

As to the pig thing, I wouldn't be worried about raising them either, they are wild on the island so I'd figure there's enough to go around for everyone. I mean, ONE piglet is 150 lbs of meat, that's plenty for starters right?

What I WOULD be thinking is "Gee, maybe that Polar bear meat would be good bait for a piggy trap of some kind, here on the beach, so we don't need to go trampling through the jungle where HUMONGOUS FRICKIN' CREATURES LIVE!"

I especially thought NOT raising the piggies was the smart thing to do because they turn out to be giant mauling critters o' death

I agree that asking the oriental girl to keep an eye out for your son is a bit retarded though. Of course, that is in character...he doesn't seem to be too good of a father

I totally saw the ending coming from the first shot in the episode where he's twitching his toes on the beach with a stunned look of joy on his face. I even called it out loud, so my friend Ferguson can vouch for me on that.

If Jack's hallucinating, that would explain the man in the suit. I also got the feeling that we'll be seeing the black woman's husband at some point. Perhaps there's another community on the island? Perhaps they could end up in conflict over resources/etc. We'll see.

Each episode is spanning 1 to 1.5 days, kinda like Twin Peaks. So if they keep that pace, our pals here may only be stranded on that island for a few months before the end of the series (provided they get rescued or escape at the end). That would help explain why they don't all grow really long beards and/or lose dramatic amounts of weight, but it would also limit the sort of building-our-own-civilization type stories they could tell.

There are something like 14 major characters, so I expect we'll be having a few more establishment episodes before we learn more about what makes this island so strange.

What if. . . these 48 people are not only the only survivors of the plane wreck but also the only survivors on the planet? I.e., there was some global catastrophe that knocked the plane out the sky and changed the laws of space/time?

One of the first things I thought of regarding Locke and his toe wiggling wasn't quadraplegia. He could have had a stroke, or advanced diabetes (with the attendant circulatory problems that always crop up...in the feet). Maybe he had a diabetic attack in Australia? That's certainly a situation that a insurance company wouldn't want to cover the inevitability of. Yeah, so we haven't seen him take any insulin yet but..

Since we don't know what his problem was, it's speculation at this point. Wait, grasshoppers, wait!

One of the first things I thought of regarding Locke and his toe wiggling wasn't quadraplegia. He could have had a stroke, or advanced diabetes (with the attendant circulatory problems that always crop up...in the feet). Maybe he had a diabetic attack in Australia? That's certainly a situation that a insurance company wouldn't want to cover the inevitability of. Yeah, so we haven't seen him take any insulin yet but..

Since we don't know what his problem was, it's speculation at this point. Wait, grasshoppers, wait!

I assumed he didn't tell the Australian outback company that he was wheelchair-bound. Did I miss something else?

And isn't quad meaning all limbs are impaired? I only saw him in the chair, meaning legs were affected but he moved his arms just fine I thought.

edit: I have this idea about the Korean couple. They were in Aus like everyone else right? So they probably needed a way to understand English, I'm thinking an English to Korean dictionary. What if someone, Michael maybe, finds it in the debris and uses it to start communicating with them? Maybe he uses it to get closer to Sun, whom he seems to be interested in.

I have to apologize to QPmy line of thinking was similar to yours - dunno how I missed your post previously...

Suspended reality, though, really lends to the idea...

we're both probably wrong - but I feel like a 'wicked reeetahd' for missing a point that was similar to mine waaay previous to me posting.

...the horror.

I also should give credit to (forgive me for forgetting who had the thought) the idea that the 'big bad dude' was using the bald guy for alterior motives. I thought that was a cool plot line - although it's unlikely.

I have to say, though... we're talking network TV. With all due respect to network TV junkies/fans, etc - there is little to no chance any of our ideas are worthy. Network TV is built for the lowest common denomenator - and twists in cinema along similar lines are so stupid and out of the blue (and cliche OR blatently obvious), you wonder how you didn't realize it to begin with... Or wondered what smack the writer took to come up with the idea.....

I just hope they take us down a path that makes the time invested in this series worthwhile....

Yep, quad is all four limbs, para is usually legs only. But it's jumping to conclusions that he was unable to use his legs at all before. iirc you never saw him in a wheelchair until the Outback scene, which lends me to believe that something in Australia might have triggered a latent health condition with him. I mean I didn't see a wheelchair near his bed when he was talking to his phone sex girl, and most people who require a wheelchair have it right next to where they sleep. Like I posted before, he could be a severe diabetic. He could have some peripheral neuropathy that affects his right leg (the only leg he was concerned with, it seemed....). All sorts of things.

All I'm saying is wait. I'm sure his condition, whatever it is, will be revealed (along with Kate's mysterious crime).

I think the reason we didn't see him in a wheelchair was because they just wanted to hide the fact that he was a cripple.

I mean he calls it a miracle, his workers look down on him for not being able to do anything (because of legs), the only girl he could get was over the phone, and he said he didn't misrepresent himself.

This all points to his legs not working at home AND in Australia. Other wise he would've mentioned that it just happened now and that he could get better.

I may be mistaken but I thought I heard Locke tell the tour guide guy that he had spent the last 4 years living with his situation. I think all signs point to the big miracle although I would give them points for a double setup.

Now to see how they will deal with that husband and wife team of freelance assassins posing as bickering brother and bratty sister.... Hey, it could happen!